More...

Is my Bandit 600’s fuel tap faulty?

I have a 2000 Suzuki Bandit 600 and when I have the fuel tap in the ‘on’ position it starts to run poorly, as though it isn’t getting enough fuel. But when I put the fuel tap to the ‘prime’ position it runs fine. Do you think the fuel tap is faulty or could it be something else? Jackie Reid, email

The Bandit uses a vacuum design that uses negative pressure in an inlet tract to draw fuel into the carburetors. There’s a small pipe that goes from the inlet to the tap and that can get kinked or blocked, especially if you’ve had the tank off for any reason. When that happens the engine is starved of fuel and runs poorly. When you switch it to prime, it becomes a gravity feed, so the fuel flows again, but you run the risk of flooding the carbs if you leave it on ‘prime’ for any length of time, so get it sorted.